In language this week, we split into groups and each group covered a different junior novel. Within the group we each had a different role. I got the role of the connector, which was to connect the events in the story to personal or world events. Some of the other roles were summarizer; literary luminary (extracts relevant text to discuss), researcher (researches information on the story or the author). We were each told to read half of our novel with our role in mind, make notes, and come back to discuss our topic with the group. Our professor stressed that this was a much more effective than a book talk. I agree with her. My experience with a book talk is that the students just summarize the book and talk about their feelings on the book. We completed the first half of the activity this week. Our group had a great discussion on the book. We were all very engaged in the discussion. Although it took longer than students handing in a book talk, I feel like it would be much more beneficial for students to discuss the book rather than aimlessly writing a book talk.
The book that we read was a book called Wonder by RJ Palacio. The book is about a boy named August “Auggie” Pullman who has a facial deformity. The book documents his trials and tribulations when he enters public school for the first time after being home schooled most of this life due to his numerous surgeries. It takes the point of view of main characters that interact with Auggie. It is a very interesting book to teach students about empathy, bullying and perspective. So far, I have read half of the book and recommend it. Excellent book to teach ‘voice’ to students! 10 out of 10 in my book!
The book that we read was a book called Wonder by RJ Palacio. The book is about a boy named August “Auggie” Pullman who has a facial deformity. The book documents his trials and tribulations when he enters public school for the first time after being home schooled most of this life due to his numerous surgeries. It takes the point of view of main characters that interact with Auggie. It is a very interesting book to teach students about empathy, bullying and perspective. So far, I have read half of the book and recommend it. Excellent book to teach ‘voice’ to students! 10 out of 10 in my book!